On February 24, 1942, Los Angeles witnessed a chaotic event known as the 'Battle of Los Angeles,' triggered by fears of Japanese invasion following the Pearl Harbor attack. Despite military claims of spotting enemy bombers, the incident resulted from misidentifying a meteorological balloon. Five people died due to falling unexploded munitions. This false alarm reflected extreme wartime nerves, heightened by an actual Japanese submarine shelling the California coast just the day before. The anti-aircraft defenses were on high alert, prepared for an imminent attack that never materialized.
"The combined number of guns within LA could place 48 flak shells into the sky every minute, creating a perilous curtain of fire for any would-be bombers to penetrate."
"The Americans expected some sort of Pearl Harbor-like carrier plane attack on the US West Coast, so tension was very high, exacerbated only the day before by the shelling of the Ellwood Oil Refinery."
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